The Sunsets
by absolx23
Summary: It is finally time. Ford has completed the Quantum Destabilizer and is ready to take down Bill Cipher. He knows he will die trying and has accepted it, but human nature and emotions rarely want to go quietly.


_**A/N**_ _: Here you go. Also the song Ford sings is called "I Pray to You" which are fan lyrics to the song "What if I can't? What if I'm not worthy of her ideals?" from the Fire Emblem Awakening soundtrack by Unawhut on YouTube._ _watch?v=C0mwLjqWYRw_

 **Warnings** : Ford and his self hatred/lack of self worth

Ford double checked each separate mechanism on his Quantum Destabilizer. Everything seemed in fine working order, now he would just have to wait for the rift to open.

He was sitting on the top of a mountain, overlooking a mostly empty grassland. He'd arrived in this dimension about a week ago. From what he could tell, other than microbes and plant life, he was all alone.

Even after all this time, he still couldn't believe he was about to confront Bill Cipher again and this time with a sure fire way to defeat him. He had never really considered that he would actually complete this. It was always if he could get all the pieces for the Destabilizer. If he could survive long enough. If he could find a dimension that was set to open to the Nightmare Realm before being chased off.

But now, it seemed it was time. Once the rift opened, he would head through it, sealing it behind him. He would find Bill Cipher. He would kill him. The scourge of the multiverse would be dead. The rest of his allies couldn't travel between dimensions on their own. Since natural Nightmare Realms rifts only worked one way, the monster would be trapped. He would be trapped. But that didn't matter. He had brought Bill close to his earth. It was his fault. The best he could do for his dimension and the multiverse at large was defeat him. After Bill was defeated and he ran out of charges on his Destabilizer, some monster would kill him.

Even though Ford had accepted this fact a long time ago, there was a still a primordial instinct telling him to run. A human's self preservation sense. It told him to run. He could survive easily in this dimension and be safe for the rest of his days. Most of the multiverse didn't know or care about Bill. Out of the dimensions he found that knew about Bill, only two helped him defeat the triangle (Not technically true. He had found many people who had helped gather materials. People who believed in the rantings of someone with no past. But they had never knew about Bill explicitly). The rest either tried to kill him due to his connection or brushed it off as the rantings of a crazy person about a mythological creature.

No. Ford shook his head. His resolve would not falter. He would finish what he started. Some other part of him ventured a guess. _You're punishing yourself. This is…_ No. He would not think of this that way. Not with that word. No what he was doing was another word that started with S. This was a sacrifice, not that other, unmentionable word.

Looking at the horizon, he saw the sunset, lighting the other mountains with an orange glow. It was beautiful. There was so much beauty in all the dimensions. The shiny floating cities of Utopen or the tall spires of Alara where so much knowledge was being unearthed.

Ford smiled to himself. He'd seen so much beauty in all the other worlds, but he'd never stopped to appreciate it. He was only realizing it now...on the night of his last sunset.

He began to hum a song. He started with the short jumping notes, moving to the long mournful cries. He'd always had a skill with music and singing, not that he'd bother to learn the first thing about how to describe it. He had learned off of muscle memory.

As he continued, the lyrics came to him. This song was sung every meal at a mountain temple in Dimension RT34). He had stayed there for a while, a year in their time. The high priestess would stand in the highest tower and sing a song for peace. It was sung in an ancient language, known only to the highest order of the temple...and him. Since the singer knew the meaning, it was picked up by his Universal Translator. He didn't know if the AI was taking liberties with the words, as it sounded fine in English. He also doubted that actual song was so mobid.

He began to sing, only loud enough so that he could hear, even if there was no one else around to hear. " _Gods, don't you hear, screams of fear, pray save us all_ " He paused, humming some notes until he forgot what was next. Looking at the sunset, he remembered the next lines.

" _See the sun rising in the distant East. And the sleepless nights, waiting for the final fight,"_ He sang. Although he tried to keep his voice steady, it wavered a lot. Weather that was from lack of practice or emotion, Ford didn't know.

As he reached the crescendo, he began to sing at a discernible volume. The way he heard it was with a female singer, so he couldn't hope to reach the same pitch, but he tried. " _Oh Gods won't you hear my prayers, pleading what a human may. In these crimson lands, painted by a broken hand."_

The next line was sung in a whisper, barely in time with the melody " _If you could see, all the misery. Why can't you see, all the senseless pain and the innocents falling."_

He stopped, the lump in his throat was too great to continue singing. But he had to steel himself. He couldn't be distracted.

The device on his wrist let out a low beep. That meant the rift would be opening soon. Ford put his goggles on and double checked the location. Then he put the Quantum Distablizer's case on his back and held the weapon in his hands.

Within seconds the rift opened. A single crack seemed to appear in the air in front of him. Although it looked 2D, Ford knew that if he moved around it, he would see the same thing.

As Ford stared at the rift with his heart pounding in his chest. Dark purple mist seeped out of the crack in the fabric of space as it widened. Soon it was tall enough for him to walk through. During his travels, he learned that since he traveled through an unstable portal, every dimension would eventually try to eject him by opening a rift. If he didn't pass through it soon, it would consume the dimension. Most rifts lead directly to another dimension. Rifts that lead to the Nightmare Realm were very rare.

Although it felt like his legs were shaking at the highest possible frequency, they were steady. Ford felt like a child with a bad case of stage fright, but it was time.

He walked through the rift, pulling the purple smoke with him as it sealed around him, pushing him into the Nightmare Realm.

This was it. He was finally here. Even under his thick clothes he could still feel a permeating chill all around his body. The only light in the inky blackness came from the many different colored blobs of energy.

Ford was quickly broken out of his awe, when he was forced to dive down to dodge a stray asteroid. Balancing himself, he tried to make sense of how to move again. From what he could tell, _wanting_ to go somewhere was more important than flapping your arms, though that was necessary too.

The corner of the Nightmare Realm he ended up in seemed mostly empty, but the amount of flashing lighting coming from behind a large mostly stationary asteroid seemed promising.

Ford flew up and soon scaled the asteroid to see a party of assorted monsters from many dimensions. They were "standing" on a wrecked spaceship with many gelatinous lights around it for illumination. When he realized the asteroid he was on had started to move towards the party, he crouched down in a sloppy sniper's position behind one of the bumps, hopefully blocking him from view.

When he got close enough to the ship to make out separate entities, Ford saw _him_. There he was, Bill Cipher. His throne made of impossible triangles and devil's pitchforks had been erected in the now exposed bridge of the ship, overlooking the party happening on the stern.

Ford readied the Destabilizer. The problem was, only a direct hit would work. That meant he would need to be in front of Bill as his back was covered by the throne. Before he could attempt to swerve the asteroid into position a stray burst of energy from the party collided with the asteroid.

The shrapnel went flying in every direction, leaving Ford floating there, exposed.

Bill must of heard the sound of impact as he swung out of his throne and grew to two times his size and floated over the party. "AW, MY OLD PAWN HAS COME BACK TO SEE IF HE CAN TAKE DOWN THE QUEEN!" Bill said, grasping his hands together like a six year-old girl who'd just found a cute puppy. Knowing he would only have this chance, Ford raised his weapon at Bill, only to find that the triangle shaped scope was too small for Bill sized up shape at this distance.

Noticing the Quantum Destabilizer, Bill faltered, as if he was actually scared. However, that was only for a moment. "YOU KNOW SIXER, I'D LOVE TO STAY AND CHAT, BUT MY HENCHMANIACS HERE HAVE BEEN _DYING_ TO MEET YOU." With a flick of his finger, all of the monsters partying charged at Ford. Taking that moment of confusion as Stanford tried to focus on the most imminent threat, Bill sailed off towards a structure in the distance. The size increase must've been strenuous, as he turned back to his normal size before settling on it.

But Ford had bigger problems than Bill at the moment. Backpedaling to give himself more breathing room, he aimed his first shot at small green wyvern. He knew the dimension that this species of wyvern came from and that it was the baby version of its species. A twinge of guilt keep him from pulling the trigger at first, but he pushed that away and fired. It was either kill or be killed. When the blast made contact, the young wyvern imploded into a small ball of energy before being snuffed out.

The delay of remorse he'd felt allowed another monster to sneak up on him. Ducking down, it collided with another. He then blasted them into oblivion. It was rise and repeat until he had decimated what he'd assumed to be the majority of Bill's forces, though the triangular demon could have others hiding out somewhere.

Ford was now breathing hard. Looking down at the Quantum Destabilizer Ford saw that he only had three charges left. That would definitely be enough to defeat Bill, but not enough to defend him from any remaining monsters. Maybe that was a good thing. He'd rather be killed quickly by some monster than starve to death, although he did have some nightshade pills buried deep in his jacket pockets from the time he was involved in a rebellion against a tyrannical government in a dimension for a while if it came to that.

Stealing himself, he flew towards the structure. Once it came into view he could see it was a mess of optical illusions, similar to some artwork he'd remembered seeing back on earth. He recognized this structure from history books in Alara. It was called the Quadrangle of Qonfusion. It was one of the high alchemist's best inventions that had gone missing during the first dimensional war. Apparently it had ended up in the Nightmare Realm, which made sense as a surprise rift was probably the only way something so large could go missing.

Standing in the very center was Bill Cipher. Landing on the edge of the structure Ford began to look for a way to reach Bill, when more monsters began converging on his location from many different directions.

He'd began running, hoping that he could somehow reach Bill in time. He didn't have enough charges to defend himself, but at least he'd be ensured a quick death after defeating Bill.

One monster, a pair of teeth on legs charged towards him. Reacting quickly, Ford ducked, allowing the monster to go sailing until he hit a support pillar.

That was it! How could Ford of been so stupid. He could just jump for Bill and defeat him right then and there. Readying the gun he aimed it at Bill and jumped towards him, waiting for the right moment when Bill was exactly in range. Finger over the trigger, ready to fire and end Bill forever Ford launched towards his sworn enemy. However, right when Bill was in range, the entire Nightmare Realm shook. Ford misfired and the energy bolt hit a support pillar, bringing down an entire section of the Quadrangle. Rolling to prevent injury and then getting back up, he pointed his weapon at Bill.

From Ford's peripheral vision he saw a mass of blue light. _All-deities, was that the portal? How could it been reactivated?_ He wondered. Bill must of noticed it too, as he was caught in a laughing fit. "THIS IS TOO PERFECT," he screamed,"SIXER COMES BACK TO TRY TO DEFEAT ME AND THEN FEZ ACTUALLY PULLS THROUGH!"

Ford had no idea what Bill was talking about, but he needed to get to the portal. Any moment a monster could come through. It wouldn't matter if Bill was dead if his minions had a way into his dimension.

What remained of Bill's forces had reached the center of the Quadrangle. They stood on different pillars and walkways, like a council of horror, staring down at him with so many different eyes.

Ford began walking backwards, keeping his eyes on the triangle and his weapon in position. "You make think you have me beat this time, but I will find a way to destroy you," he threatened.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID LAST TIME SIXER! AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! THIRTY YEARS LATER AND YOU STILL CAN'T BEAT ME!"

Ford reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash grenade. Using his teeth to pull the stopper out, he tossed it towards the ground and jumped off the Quadrangle.

Before he began his dash to the portal, he blindly shot one final blast into the smoke, maybe luck would be on his side for once and it would hit Bill.

Strapping the Quantum Destabilizer back into its casing on his back, Ford began to swim towards the portal.

Once he reached the portal, he righted himself to stare at sight before him. He'd only been able to see the portal from the outside, but now he could see that the bright spot on earth's side was only part of it. Blue energy of all shades spilled from it. Wisps of light withered like snakes trying to break free.

Ford allowed himself one last glance at the Nightmare Realm before going into the portal. Behind him, hot in pursuit, was Bill and his remaining forces. Even though this meant he would live another day, he wished he could of stayed and defeated Bill Cipher. Knowing this was the only way to keep his dimension safe, he swam into the portal.

As Ford entered the portal, he could feel the rift collapsing behind him, pushing him towards his home dimension, pushing him towards the unknown. The natural movement of the rift, like the current of the ocean pushed him forward, until he was standing on the edge of the tunnel, the earth side of the portal like a pond.

Turning to see the collapsing rift consuming the dimensional tunnel, Ford walked forward, through the earth portal, back home.

Ford walked out the portal, stepping onto a fallen metal column. As soon as he stepped out of the portal, he knew he was home. This wasn't an alternate dimension. The record of the some other universe's Ford's folly, it was him. For once he felt like he belonged. Like a puzzle piece that had finally been placed correctly.

What was left of the portal fizzled out behind him, the unstable dimension tunnel clossaping. Ford walked forward, his boots echoing through the silent basement.

That was where he saw it..his first journal. The one he had entrusted to Stanley all those years ago. He reached down to grab it, first placing his six-fingered hand over the gold cut out, an old habit from his research years.

Grabbing the journal, he dropped it into the pocket he had added to the inside of his jacket long ago. It had held many different recording devices. A futuristic voice recorder, a small camera, a notebook, scraps a paper, and a scroll, among others had all been kept there. But none of them fit perfectly. For some impractical sentimental reason that was clear to Ford in his youth, but not so much now, the pocket could only fit one book perfectly, and that was his journal.

"What...? Who is that?" Ford heard a voice say. He turned to see a young child looking up and rubbing his head.

Ford began to take off his goggles. If he was going to have a conversation..and possibly fight...he wanted to be able to see clearly. He only needed the goggles in the Nightmare Realm due to the fact glasses wouldn't provide enough protection from all the stinging particles. As he did that he heard the man next to the boy who spoken first say,"The author of the journals, my brother." Ford tossed his goggles to the side. So, the man wearing the suit and the frez..even though he looked so different..was his brother...was Stanley.

Two other entities, one of which seemed to be a young human girl, and the other...he wasn't really sure of had also gotten up. "Is this the part where one of us faints?" the girl asked.

"Ohoho, I am so on it, dude." The other creature replied, before promptly collapsing on the ground. He seemed to be a member of the dominant species of Rodentus 7, but how one had gotten to earth, Ford didn't know.

After glancing at the collapsed hairless gopher, the two children ran to help him up, while the man...no, while _Stanley_ got up and moved to embrace him. "Finally! After all these long years of waiting, you're actually here! Brother!"

When Stanley was in range, Ford just reacted. He had so much bottled up anger. Not only did Stanley ruin his perpetual motion machine, not only did Stanley push him into the portal, but Stanley had reactivated the portal. Ford had been moments away from defeating Bill and ensuring safety for the multiverse. Ford lashed out and punched his brother. He didn't even punch him with proper form(well he did use proper boxing form, but punching with a fist without brass knuckles or boxing gloves could break your hand).

Rubbing the point of impact, Ford's brother responded,"Oh! Ow! What the heck was that for?"

Ford sethed. How could Stanley not know? He had pushed him into the portal started this mess in the first place, put the multiverse in even more danger..

 _If he didn't help you, you would be dead now. He didn't know what you were doing._ Part of Ford calmed down. That rational was, in fact, true.

But the other part of Ford, the one in control, the one that didn't stop to think when there was no time to think didn't calm down. "This was an insanely risky move! Restarting the portal? Didn't you read my warnings?" Ford shot back, thirty years of anger and resentment bubbling to the surface.

Ford sat on the porch of this lab..no not his lab anymore. Thanks to his brother it was now a money grubbing tourist trap with fake attractions..the kind that gave anomaly hunters like him a bad name.

The sun was setting, blocked by the mostly familiar trees of the Gravity Falls woods, but coming through in some rays of light. So much had happened. Ford knew he needed to get to work. That he needed to survey the damage to his lab and journals. He should also examine the children(and Stanley's handyman) to make sure they weren't adversely affected by the portal. He should also properly store all of the associated dimensional knickknacks that were currently in his old coat. There was just so much he needed to do, but he also wanted to rest.

Not really rest as in sleep, but relax. Not need to think of anything. So many things didn't make sense in his tired brain. What had happened? Had he really been gone for only thirty years? Shermie shouldn't have grandkids that old, or could he?

 _No,_ Ford thought, _no trying to figure things out. Just relax._

Ford looked out at the sunset. He had thought that the sunset on dimension 26T36 would be the last one he ever saw, but he was wrong. It would be the same sunset as the first one he saw, so many years ago. The same one that he saw all those nights when he was a young child with Stanley, looking out over the beach in those old rickety swings. The one that was made when earth rotated the light from a star 92.96 million miles out of the view of humans in that area.

This would be the last sunset he ever saw. Maybe it would come decades from now, or years, or months, or even weeks. That didn't matter. Ford knew that he would live his last day the same way he lived his first, in dimension 46'/. And the part of Ford that was the basic human sense of self preservation was happy, even if Ford himself currently wished he had died after destroying Bill with his Quantum Destabilizer in the cold emptiness of the Nightmare Realm, where the warmth of no star ever reached.


End file.
